Investigation into the role of African women in the combat against desertification

ABSTRACT

“Over 250 million people are directly affected by desertification. In addition some one billion people in over one hundred countries are at risk. These people include many of the world’s poorest, most marginalized, and politically weak citizens” (UNCCD Website).

INVESTIGATION INTO THE ROLE OF AFRICAN WOMEN IN THE FIGHT AGAINST DESERTIFICATION

The role of women in the development process over the last decade has become increasingly important, particularly following chapter 24 of Agenda 21. In this governments are encouraged to better integrate women in the course of development. In this report I hope to investigate the success of this integration in relation to the combat against desertification in Africa.

“Desertification means a long-term change in the characteristics of the biome: plant life, vegetation, and soil are changed and impoverished” (Mayhew 1997:127).

Desertification is a very serious problem in many parts of the world (see Table 1 for facts and figures). There has been great debate as to why desertification, as defined above, occurs and whether the phenomenon is truly real desertification. However there is agreement amongst scientists and geographers alike that there are certain factors that can contribute to the process of desertification. These include over cultivation, overgrazing, deforestation and poor irrigation practices. Alan Grainger also argues that in addition “these are influenced by three contributing factors: population changes, climatic changes and changing social and economic conditions” (Grainger 1982:10).

Over cultivation can have a number of detrimental effects such as declining soil fertility, increased surface runoff, erosion of soils, encroachment of sand dunes and exposure of topsoil to wind. The result is the exhaustion of once fertile and arable land, inducing dust-blown, desert like conditions, inappropriate and impossible to yield crops or keep healthy livestock. Similarly overgrazing can have such an affect through damage to vegetation, soil compaction and sealing from trampling. Rapidly growing populations have meant an incredible increase in the demand for food production. As a result farmers are trying to grow more crops and rear more livestock at the expense of the land, shortening fallow periods and increasingly farming marginal lands.

It is often assumed that irrigation is the golden solution to the desertification dilemma however this is not always the case particularly if it is done badly. For instance if land is not properly drained it can cause severe crop damage and because irrigation water is, more often than not, groundwater, it is much more salty, increasing the salinity of the soil, and thus promoting desertification. It is also argued that irrigation and wells put too much strain on the water table, causing it to drop quite dramatically and inducing land to a desert like state.

Deforestation is believed to be an important factor in the desertification of large expanses of land across the globe. “Africa lost 39 million hectares of tropical forest during the 1980s, and another 10 million hectares by 1995” (SPR Website) leaving it the worst affected continent. Deforestation occurs for a number of reasons but large-scale deforestation is often attributable to logging and the clearance of land for cash cropping. Although “the removal of trees benefits cropping and grazing in the short term”, the long-term effect is soil damage and loss of fertility until the land is abandoned. The scale of these logging and farming clearances are vast and extensive resulting in the rapid desertification of large areas of once rich, biologically diverse land.

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As a direct result of the 1992 Rio Summit on Environment and Development, 169 countries ratified a treaty called the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). UNCCD commits governments of both developing and developed nations, to allocate more time and resources to help combat desertification, by implementing a series of action programmes on different administrative levels. At the top end of the scale is the Global Mechanism brought about in 1998. This aims to integrate national efforts on a global scale in order to channel and mobilise existing resources (financial and technical) in an effective and efficient way. Secondly the UNCCD have implemented National Action Programmes (NAP), which set about identifying the causes and solutions for desertification, and specifying the roles of governments, communities, land users and resources in the combat. A National Desertification Fund (NDF) may aid this, which intends to direct financial capital to local level quickly and fairly, by governmental and non-governmental participation. The NAPs are all an integrated part of the Regional Action programmes (RAPs) set out by the convention to assist the world’s five worst affected regions. These regions are Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Northern Mediterranean, and Central and Eastern Europe. Lastly the Convention offers Sub regional Action Programmes, which endeavour to instil cooperation between regions to increase efficiency of NAPs.

“Desertification has its greatest impact in Africa. Two thirds of the continent is desert or drylands” (UNCCD Website). This quote is evidence of the UNCCD’s concern and prioritisation of the African RAP. Africa is a region/continent that suffers frequent and severe droughts as well as poverty, famine, and a heavy dependence on natural resources and agriculture for survival. Of the five RAPs, Africa is considered to be the region with the most acute desertification and is therefore very much a focus for the UNCCD. Reasons for the severity of desertification in Africa lie in the cumulative factors and problems that afflict the region. Such problems include political instability, conflict, “insufficient institutional and legal frameworks, incomplete infrastructure, and weak scientific, technical, and educational capacities” (UNCCD Website). The regions poverty and dependence on natural resources has meant that land has been overused and over exploited. Continual migration by farmers once their land is too degraded to farm has caused increased pressure on remaining fertile lands and an increased threat on food security in many African nations.

The African RAP is the UNCCD’s most thorough and detailed action plan. Part of this is due to urgent proposals and plans brought about nearly two years before the UNCCD itself was introduced. The RAP is coordinated supported by the African Development Bank in Abidjan. A series of NAPs were devised for the region and promoted in various appropriate African countries. By the year 2000, the following countries had adopted their NAPS and finalized plans: Mali, Chad, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Cape Verde, Tanzania, Benin, Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia, Uganda and Senegal. Later that year a further ten countries joined in and the NAPs were incorporated in other national schemes, development programmes and NGO (non governmental) plans to ensure better chances of success. The National Action Programmes were than honed and integrated into four sub regional action programmes: the Arab Maghreb Union for Northern Africa (AMU), the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel for the West (CILSS), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development for the East (IGAD), and the Southern African Development Community for the South (SADC).

The overall UNCCD plan is to “promote the integrated management of international river, lake, and hydrogeological basins; agroforestry and soil conservation; rangelands use and fodder crops; ecological monitoring, natural resources mapping; remote sensing and early warning systems; new and renewable energy sources and technologies; sustainable agricultural farming systems; and enabling environments and capacity building” (UNCCD Website).

What is unclear is the role women have played in this complicated plan to combat desertification in Africa, “Women have frequently been excluded from land conservation and development projects that directly affect their livelihoods” (Earth Action Website). However in 1997 the UNCCD released an action plan called ‘Strengthening the role of Women in the Implementation of the Convention to Combat Desertification and Drought’. The plan sets out clear guidelines to increase the involvement of women at different levels and stages of the development process, stating “the success of the UNCCD depends on the full participation of women at all levels of the implementation process” (UNDP Website). The strategy aims to achieve gender equality through monitoring and reporting, gender analysis, training, awareness, specialisation and funding mechanisms. Twenty-two specialists from different fields and countries devised the plan at a workshop in Oslo, to ensure:

Gender sensitivity is an integral part of the implementation activities of the UNCCD
The capacity of all institutions and players involved at all levels of the implementation process is strengthened and that all policies and programs take into account the gender dimension

As yet the success of these efforts are either unknown or unreported. In Africa there is some evidence that progress is being made. For example 30-50% of participants in the formulation of the Kenyan NAP were women and a number of gender issues were addressed.

“It is mostly at the local level that women have organized and are actively involved in combating desertification” (UNDP Website). There is confirmation that women are and have been participating in the combat against desertification. One example is Women’s Participation in Desertification Combat Project, Burkina Faso. This is a project set up by the charity TREE AID to increase the participation of women battling “a scarcity of wood and decreasing soil productivity caused by overuse by humans and bush fires” (TREE AID Website). The charity, founded in 1987, works to alleviate poverty and combat desertification through community forest projects in affected areas in Africa. The charity has already planted four and a half million trees as well as protecting existing forests and generating incomes for local populations.

Another scheme involving women involves the use of a Latin American plant named Jatropha. “The plant has…been successfully used to control erosion” (Global South Website) in West Africa and this is not its only use. Other uses include as laxative, latex to stop bleeding, against infectious disease, to combat Malaria and as fuel to substitute diesel oil and electricity. The main success of the scheme is that it has taken focus away from the intensive agriculture and grazing that has lead to diversification, whilst helping to improve the soil. Women have not only been involved in planting but have been trained to use the plant’s oil to make soap. This has not only increased their involvement in the combat against desertification but also provided them with an income that might otherwise have not existed.

Probably the most well known of schemes that involves women is the Green Belt Movement. The scheme tries to combat desertification by planting trees and through the conservation of soil and water. The National Council of Women of Kenya without staff and funds founded it in 1977. However today around 80 000 women are involved in the project and over 10 million trees have been planted in the combat against desertification. As well as this, women are involved in growing seedlings that they sell to farmers and public institutions. The Council hopes to extend the project in order to reach other areas of Africa that not only suffer the effects of desertification but also suffer from gender disparities in the development process.

It would appear that the aforementioned schemes have been successful in not only fighting desertification in parts of Africa, but involving and increasing the role that women play in this fight. However the true extent of their success cannot be determined. Ideally I would have liked to have studied some data e.g. on the percentage of land that has been rescued from desertification in Africa or by each scheme. So that I could compare these results with each other and with schemes where the role of women is not promoted. However I found (during 2 months of research) that this data is not easily obtainable, and I have therefore failed to produce any sort of statistical analysis. However below I have tried to analyse the success of the schemes (TREE AID, Jatropha, Green Belt) based on the information I managed to obtain.

Of the three schemes I believe the Green Belt Movement has been the most successful at involving women in the development process and the combat against desertification. This is because not only did women launch the project but also it involves a large number of women and at every level. The TREE AID project involving women is just one of a number of projects run by the charity, so it’s focus is not the empowerment of women. Similarly the Jatropha scheme involves women but the project does not emphasise the role of women to be important.

In terms of scale the Green Belt Movement also appears to be the most successful of the three schemes, planting 10million trees compared to TREE AID’s 4½ million. However it should be noted that the TREE AID scheme involves protecting existing woodland to prevent further deforestation and potential desertification, something that the other two schemes do not admit.

All three schemes have succeeded in generating employment for rural, local communities, however the scheme that has provided the greatest diversification is the Jatropha project. As the plant provides a number of different uses, as described earlier, people are earning income from a variety of different products that benefit them as a fuel and medicine, and that can be sold as a product. The other two schemes do not provide this diversity as their focus is on the planting of trees or reforestation.

However I feel that each of these projects has failed, perhaps because they have not detailed the full extent of their work or simply that the information is not available to me. I felt that these projects failed to address all the issues that have contributed to the desertification of the land. Indeed TREE AID and the Green Belt Movement are addressing the issue of desertification, but none are addressing over grazing or cultivation, or what I believe to be one of the most important factors, population increase. I believe these schemes would have greater success if communities were educated in looking after the land and in family/birth control. I am not suggesting that reducing the rate of population increase is the answer to the problem of desertification, but my research shows that population growth is a significant factor in the desertification process and many other problems in the third world such as food security.

In terms of the future of the combat against desertification, I believe more focus should be put on other factors that contribute to the phenomenon as well as a strong emphasis on the education of people in Africa, so that more comprehensive schemes can be launched, with greater stories of success. The role of women in the combat against desertification is clearly growing and becoming increasingly valued. I predict that we will see more schemes like the Green Belt Movement being set up in nations across Africa, as well as increased involvement in the implementation of projects in response to the UNCCD’s guidelines on gender equality. Only time will tell of the success of this.

Bibliography

Dregne, H.E. (1983): Desertification of Arid Lands. Harwood Academic Publishers, Switzerland.
Grainger, A. (1982): Desertification: How people make deserts, how people can stop and why they don’t. IIED, London.
Middleton, N. (1991): Desertification. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Sender, J., and Smith, S. (1990): Poverty, Class and Gender in Rural Africa. Routledge, London.
Sherbrooke, W.C., and Paylore, P. (1973): World Desertification: Cause and Effect. A Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography. University of Arizona, U.S.A.
Spooner, B., and Mann, H.S. (Ed) (1982): Desertification and Development: Dryland Ecology in Social Perspective. Academic Press Inc., London.